Our trip to the North Pole (well sort of )

There has been lots of talk around here in the last few weeks about our trip to Milwaukee to see my dad's family. Little Lennox was supremely excited. We left on the 19th, early in the morning. It was quite a feat getting through security with all of Lennox's toys, a stroller, and lots of chocolate milk. Before the flight Lennox and daddy watched the planes getting ready.

Mommy got to sit next to him on the flight to Atlanta. Lennox watched out the window the whole time and thoroughly enjoyed his soda and peanuts. For the last few weeks we had been praying and hoping for some snow when we got to Milwaukee. We didn't know quite what we were wishing for. When we got to Atlanta our flight was delayed due to the snow in Milwaukee. We were supposed to have an hour and a half layover in Atlanta and it turned into five hours. Luckily Lennox fell asleep for a good bit of it because we had a very hard time entertaining him and his cousins for a lot of that time. 

In Atlanta, Lennox insisted that he put on his jacket and gloves for Milwaukee because he did not want to be cold. So he wore this ensemble most of the day, on the flight, and was ready when we finally arrived in Milwaukee around 9pm. 

At first Lennox thought the snow was yucky. He saw the snow on the roads around the airport first and it was good and dirty.

Then when we got out at the hotel and Lennox picked up a handful of snow in some Florida gloves this was his reaction:

He hated it and said he did not want to play in the snow again.  We christened our hotel room with some bed jumping.

The next morning my parents went to Target and got some appropriate winter wear which we could not find in Florida. And from that moment on, we realized Lennox was a snow baby. He couldn't get enough of it.

Later that day we celebrated Christmas with all of my dad's family.

Lennox got to play with his cousin Tyler who is a few months younger with him.

There was more fun in the snow. My uncle lives on a golf course so there was plenty of deep snow to play in and make snow angels in.

Then Lennox and Holly did a holiday song show with his new microphone. That night we took a dip in the heated swimming pool at the hotel :-) 

The next day was bitterly cold, around -8 degrees. We went to my grandparents.

Lennox was the only one who even wanted to play in the snow that day. It was so cold. Look at that cold little face.

That night we went to visit one of my dad's oldest friends. That night when we left and it was frigid and mommy and Lennox slipped on the ice we decided we were glad we lived in Florida.

On Monday we went to visit the Pabst Mansion (the beer mogul). It was in downtown Milwaukee. We didn't realize there was parking behind it and we ended up walking about two blocks in the cold to get to it. It was so cold we thought our noses and lips would harden and fall off. 

This is us in front of the mansion.

And walking back in the cold with Holly.

There was some holiday shopping later that day and a dinner with family.  

The next morning the kids had there last playtime in the snow. Lennox had gotten pretty good at throwing snowballs by then. And he built a snowman with a mohawk with his cousins.

At 3pm we flew out and this was the picture of our exhausted and cold babies in the airport. As you can see Lennox is loving it still. We think he was born in the wrong part of the country :-)

Our flight out was not as harrowing as the one to Milwaukee. All our flights were on time. We thought for sure we would be stranded since this was the same day as all the cancelled flights in Chicago. Lennox slept on the plane and we finally arrived in Jacksonville at 10pm. Our trip was so much fun and it was nice to get out of the 80 degree weather and experience a somewhat white Christmas.